This article was originally published on islamsperspective.blogspot.com
On the 14th of December 2008 an Iraqi journalist, Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his shoes, one after the other, at outgoing US president Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, in full glare of the media. This incident immediately made global headlines and the neo-con fantasy to be greeted with garlands in Iraq after waging a war based on lies finally faced and badly failed the reality check.
Opinion over the action of 29 year old al-Zaidi has been sharply divided. The majority of Arabs considered this an act of heroism and bravery, reflecting their own bitter sentiments about the US aggression in Iraq and the established impotence of their own governments. Al-Zaidi's brother said: "Millions of Iraqis or rather millions of the people of the world wish to do what Muntadhar did — thank God he had the guts to do it and avenge the Iraqi people."
One particular theme emerged that caught my attention: this theme was echoed by Bush himself in the immediate aftermath of the shoe-attack when asked by a reporter — he mentioned that this was freedom of expression. This statement has been packaged by quite a few to demonstrate the 'moral dominance' of capitalism over other ways of life, by posing questions such as: "just imagine what would have happened to the shoe-thrower under the Saddam regime?"
I would like to argue from three different angles, challenging this lie of the superiority of western capitalism and secular democracies.
First: Whenever Muslims want to evaluate a system it needs to be done on the basis of Islam — the comparison should be between capitalism and Islam, not capitalism and dictatorship. If we just try to look for something worse than what we are evaluating, we will always find it and therefore it is a futile exercise. Just to quote one example from Islamic history: in the battle of Badr, when the Prophet (saw) was straightening the ranks of the Muslim army, Sawwad bin Ghuzzaiya was a step ahead of the others and so the Prophet (saw) pushed him in his stomach with a wooden stick. Sawwad (ra) said, "Oh Messenger of Allah, you have hurt me and I want to get even with you." The Prophet very calmly said, "Go ahead," and uncovered his stomach. Sawwad (ra) jumped on the Prophet, hugged him and kissed his stomach. The Prophet asked, "Oh Sawwad, why did you do that?" He replied, "You see what we are going to face, and this might be the last day in my life — so I wanted the last moments of my life to be my skin touching yours."
Second: When we compare the situation today with the one which prevailed under dictators like Saddam, how can we forget that these monarchies were in reality the puppet regimes of the Western colonialists — be it the British or the Americans? This means that all the cruelties carried out by the dictators were at least sanctioned by their Western masters, and therefore they share the blame equally.
Third: The most important point is the deceitful cleverness which this Western capitalist system employs. It robs its subjects from their land, resources, lives, honor and deen, but still manages that they cherish the 'freedom of expression' which they are left with! What is the point in having the right to express all your anger — even if it is by throwing shoes at the spearhead of who brought all this evil — when you are not left with any other meaningful choice?
Such incidents show the deceptive but influential nature of western propaganda. It is imperative that Muslims do not allow anyone to pull the wool over their eyes. Muslims should feel a sense of shame — that given all the armies, weapons, and resources that we have at our disposal, all we can muster is admiration for a shoe-thrower. This speaks volumes about the impotence and treachery of the rulers that blot the Muslim lands.
Muhammad (saw) said: "Every traitor will have a flag on the Last Day. And his flag will be raised according to his level of treachery. The traitor of traitors is the ruler who betrays his people."
